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INDIA: Don Bosco Navajeevan offers new course in bread and sweets making during the pandemic

INDIA

(MissionNewswire) Salesian missionaries with Don Bosco Navajeevan, located in Hyderabad, India, launched a training course during the pandemic lockdown which teaches people how to make bread and sweets. The project is known as “Chiguru sweets cart for sustainable development.”

This new training has created new paths of development and female empowerment. Children have also showed interest in learning new skills and were impressed by the tasty creations produced as part of the project.

Don Bosco Navajeevan offers a range of vocational and technical training programs including electrical, carpentry and welding, tailoring, baking, garment making, and printing press skills. The organization works to ensure that poor youth have an opportunity to gain an education.

“The new training course is helping people in the local community have an alternative means of earning a living,” said Father Gus Baek, director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “In addition to providing nutrition and health support during the pandemic, Salesian missionaries are working to ensure people are able to work when they can or acquire new skills to go back to work when the lockdowns are lifted.”

In addition to education, Don Bosco Navajeevan provides a youth center that places special emphasis on rescuing and rehabilitating children engaged in child labor. The program also offers shelter to child laborers and street children. Once a child arrives at the center, he or she receives shelter, food and clothing and are then eligible to participate in Salesian programs that focus on education and life skills training. The goal being to help the children break the cycle of poverty and go on to lead productive lives free from abuse and forced labor. Supplementary classes at Don Bosco Navajeevan cater to those who have missed school and have fallen behind academically.

India has the world’s fourth largest economy but more than 22 percent of the country lives in poverty. About 31 percent of the world’s multidimensionally poor children live in India, according to a report by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative. A multidimensionally poor child is one who lacks at least one-third of 10 indicators, grouped into three dimensions of poverty: health, education and standard of living.

Missionaries continue to assess needs for prevention and support during this challenging time and work to support youth and their families during the pandemic.

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Sources:

ANS Photo (usage permissions and guidelines must be requested from ANS)

ANS – India – “Don Bosco Navajeevan” project for producing bread and sweets

Don Bosco Navajeevan

Don Bosco Navajeevan Facebook

Salesian Missions – India

World Bank – India